Intravenous (IV) poles and bases for such poles are known in the art. IV pole bases typically comprise a base that supports a vertically-disposed IV pole. The IV pole, in turn, typically has arms, hooks, or other features upon which medical-services providers can hang, for example, bags of intravenous fluids, medications, and various electro-mechanical apparatuses. IV poles are typically provided in considerable numbers at medical-services facilities such as hospitals, urgent care centers, nursing homes, rehabilitation centers, and so forth.
IV poles and their bases are typically, by design, portable. Many IV pole bases have casters or other rollers to facilitate moving the IV pole from place to place. This portability well suits the ordinary use of such an apparatus in a service-care environment. For any number of reasons it may be convenient or even essential that a given IV pole be moved from one place to another. As one simple example in these regards, a single IV pole may move as a corresponding patient moves from a pre-operation staging area to the operating room and then to a recovery area. As another example, many medical-services facilities require that all IV poles and their bases be taken from time to time to a cleaning/sanitizing area for cleaning/sanitizing.
Unfortunately, while many IV poles are designed to be easily moved on their bases (for example, by rolling), most are only designed to be moved in isolation. This can make it difficult for a maintenance person to simultaneously move a relatively large number of IV poles (such as, for example, four, six, or a dozen) from one place to another. In some cases the IV pole bases have vertical legs and maintenance personnel stack or otherwise intertwine those legs to attempt make it easier to move a plurality of such poles at the same time. That said, this intertwining of vertical elements can yield uncertain connections, can be challenging to untwine, and can even raise the center of gravity for the intertwined poles and thereby make it easier for the poles to topple during movement. Such intertwining can also lead to marring or otherwise damaging the surface treatment of the base.
Elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions and/or relative positioning of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of various embodiments of the present invention. Also, common but well-understood elements that are useful or necessary in a commercially feasible embodiment are often not depicted in order to facilitate a less obstructed view of these various embodiments of the present invention. Certain actions and/or steps may be described or depicted in a particular order of occurrence while those skilled in the art will understand that such specificity with respect to sequence is not actually required. The terms and expressions used herein have the ordinary technical meaning as is accorded to such terms and expressions by persons skilled in the technical field as set forth above except where different specific meanings have otherwise been set forth herein.